A Good Man
by Guildenstern3
Summary: While hunting for Spiro Telamun, Elias stumbles upon some very familiar Masks. One of them has some questions he needs answered. Elias, Harper, Helene
1. Chapter 1

**I don't claim ownership of any Ember in the Ashes property.**

 **Be warned, there are SERIOUS SPOILERS for A TORCH AGAINST THE NIGHT in this fiction. In fact, those spoilers are the subject of this fiction.**

 **CHAPTER 1**

Elias inhaled the thick, ancient air of the Forest of Dusk to calm his frustration. He knew he could get to the forest from anywhere, but it was a lot harder to take the forest along with him, as Shaeva can. The plan was simple: use the forest to locate Spiro Teluman and get to him...if only he could get the dead to cooperate. They were notoriously stubborn.

He reached out along the threads that connected ghosts to their living loved ones. In this case, he was using Spiro's grandfather, and the dead man was furious about it. Elias wouldn't be deterred by a spirit who had stewed too long among the trees. He had questions that needed answering.

Elias thumbed the strange little blade they'd found four days ago tucked in his belt. It looked like nothing more than a stunted letter opener with an ornate handle, but the assassin Elias stripped it from claimed once the blade broke the victim's skin a hidden tip would detach itself and work to kill them of it's own will. He also claimed another tip would magically reappear in it's place once the deed was finished. The trail of bodies murdered by shallow knife wounds Elias had followed lended credence to his claims. Curiously, the beautiful handle was an exact copy of Darin's finest work, and the blade itself looked like Teluman's craftsmanship. Darin was furious and demanded answers, and Elias worried more blades like it were in circulation. He hoped Teluman had some answers.

Finally Elias found the right thread and grabbed hold. The spirit of Spiro's grandfather shrieked like metal grinding metal under the weight of Elias' touch as he clung to it. The trail was sparking smoke, and Elias followed the tendril from the Waiting Place into the world of the living. After days of trying, he felt the two souls link and hold. While the dead were ash and smoke, the living were warm flames, and the light that was Spiro Teluman bloomed in his mind's eye. Elias suppressed his elation and focused on the steady flame the old man had entangled. The Forest of Dusk shifted, and the trees changed. Snowdrifts swelled on what had been bare ground as though they had always been there, and Elias blinked away surprise. It had worked.

Just ahead a campfire burned in a clearing. Someone was settling in for the night. Elias slowed when he saw two military tents erected on either side of the fire and five horses huddled near the tree line. Elias wondered if the old grandfather had connected to the wrong descendant. He crouched down in the snow-laden brush and edged closer. One of the tent flaps swung open and he almost gasped when Helene's silver hair and black armor ducked out.

Faris followed on her heels. A wave of nostalgia swept over him. It was good to see them together. Dex sat nearby, sharing hard tack with the man Darin described as Spiro Teluman. Spiro looked sullen, but unharmed. A chain linked his ankle to Dex's, so he wasn't with them by choice. They must be transporting him back to the Empire to stand trial, but by the position of the stars and the snow on the ground Elias judged they were a long way from home. Elias considered different rescue plans where he and a blacksmith overtake three member of the Black Guard elite and didn't have much luck. As his brain whirred a small question floated by: why were there five horses? Just as the question's importance unfurled in his mind, a thud opened the back of his skull and searing pain shot through. He crumpled face down into the snow. Then there was nothing.

Elias sould and body crawled back to eachother as he regained consciousness in inches. He'd taken a serious blow, and Elias could feel congealed blood sticking to his hair and neck. He remained still and took stock of the situation. His hands and feet were bound, which wasn't something that worried him until he realized he was bound by freezing steel. Elias steadied his breath and waited for his mind to clear before making any moves.

"I know you're awake."

A thin voice cut through Elias' haze and he cracked his eyes. The Mask called Harper was kneeling nearby, but far outside Elias' reach. His scims were far across the clearing and the strange little Teluman blade was sheathed at Harper's hip. It was hard to use Mask tricks on a Mask and pretending to be weak wouldn't work, so Elias sat up in his most defensible position.

"You live." Harper said.

"The Commandant will be disappointed."

"Very."

Harper stared at him, a picture of calm. Elias felt bare beneath Harper's casual scrutiny. He always had. As a cadet, Elias noticed the older boy watched him often with an almost imperceptible frown, like he was trying to make a decision. What he was thinking, Elias couldn't guess. He had a flat, unreadable way about him. Harper was sometimes called by the Commandant outside their lessons, and for a while Elias thought his mother had taken a young lover. He couldn't imagine her caring for anyone, though, so that theory withered and died early. As students, their paths rarely crossed, but when they did Harper would nod to him. Confused and wary, Elias would nod back. On one such occasion Harper had been leaving just as Elias arrived. They exchanged nods.

"That is a true son of the Empire, loyal to me." The Commandant told him as Harper disappeared down the stairs. "He is my eyes. Anything you whisper in his ear, you whisper in mine."

Elias avoided the boy at all costs after that. The Commandant's spies would do him no favors, especially since his own loyalties to the Empire began to fade.

And here they were again, that strange small frown on Harper's face, and Elias looking for ways to avoid him.

Elias tugged on his bonds, looking for weakness. "What do you want?"

"I have questions."

"An interrogation? I've heard that's a specialty of yours."

Harper stood so Elias had to crane his head to look up at him, but otherwise didn't react. "Who told you that?"

"I have my sources." In this case, Elias' source was a persistent ghost with a twin connection so strong he could flit between the Waiting Place and the world of the living at will. Zacharias described Helene's torture in horrifying detail, laying blame for every drop of blood at Elias' feet.

Harper's boots crunched the frozen ground as he circled Elias. He was checking to make sure his captive was still no threat on all sides, like a good Mask. It didn't seem Harper was the kind to make mistakes or leave things to chance. He would get what he wanted and slit Elias' throat, and Helene would never know he had been here. Even worse, Laia would never know what had happened to him. He'd simply disappear.

"What are you doing here? Are you here for the Blood Shrike?"

Elias didn't answer. Harper produced the small knife he'd brought from the Waiting Place and turned it in his hand.

"I recognize this work. Is it Teluman, then? Are you looking for the blacksmith?"

Elias held his silence, but Harper smirked. The treacherous Mask really was as good as Zacharias reported.

"So you're looking for like-minded allies, then. Since you answered that question so easily, tell me this: in the trials, why did you defend the scholar slave?"

Elias' hands curled into fists. It was just someone else asking about Laia. He thought the Nightbringer finished with her, and good riddance. _What else does the demon want, and why is this man his messenger?_

"Ask your master. Or have the Commandant ask her master. I've nothing to say to you."

"Do you love her? Is that why?"

The fog in Elias' head cleared and the dampened whispers of the dead grew steadily insistent. There was a repeated tug at his core. The Waiting Place was calling him back.

 _Of course!_

He was being stupid. He had weapons at his disposal the Black Guard knew nothing about. Harper was underestimating him. The Mask assessed him as a normal human, but he was the Soul Catcher now. Though Harper believed he had the upper hand, the tables could easily be turned. He could pull them to the Forest of Dusk right now, but if he held out a little longer the Mask might give something away that could help Laia avoid the Nightbringer's attention. He needed Harper to feel overconfident- comfortable. Elias squinted a let his head loll to the side, feigning double-vision.

"Why do you care about the fate of a slave or my feelings about her?"

"I don't." Harper's voice was smooth as a lake in a windless summer. "I want to understand why you made that choice, knowing the cost."

The Nightbringer already knew the truth, so he didn't see how it could hurt repeating it for this soulless minion.

"Because I was tired of killing at someone else's orders. Because she was innocent and needed a defender. Because it was the right thing to do."

Harper crossed his arms and waited for him to continue.

"That's it. Sorry to disappoint."

"Does that make you a good person?"

Elias snorted. "Of course I'm not a good person. I've too much blood on my hands for that. A lifetime of bad choices can't be made right in a moment."

"The others," Harper nodded to the left. Elias assumed that was the direction of his camp, even though he couldn't see it from here. "They think you are good."

"Helene? No. Maybe once but not anymore. Not after-" Hannah's face, twisted in rage, hovered in Elias' mind. Her hateful shrieks often greeted him when he appeared in the Waiting Place.

"The Blood Shrike most of all."

Elias rolled his head to look fully at the Mask, while still acting dazed. Harper's eyes were hollow, like a gourd that has been carved out and dried. The life had long ago been scooped out of them so they could be put to the Commandant's uses. It was like looking into the empty sockets of a skull. Elias reminded himself who Harper served. The Commandant and her lackeys would know he yearned for Helene's forgiveness and use it against him. This was another interrogation tactic. Harper would use hope like a weapon.

"Stop feeding me lies. It won't work, and you don't have much time until your companions realize you're missing. Maybe we could trade? Since you're going to kill me out here anyway, there are some things I'd like to know."

Harper paused. "Fine. I may not answer you."

"Didn't think you would. Maybe an easy one. What are you doing here?" Elias wasn't sure where 'here' was, since the Forest of Dusk didn't come with a map.

Harper considered for a moment, then shrugged. "Looking for your grandfather. We're in search of allies to undermine the Commandant."

Elias laughed. Zacharias had told him everything he needed to know about Harper's alliances. "Sure you are."

"My turn. Why does the Commandant hate you?"

Elias' brow furrowed. This interrogation wasn't following any tactics Elias learned as a Mask. Every question was a surprise, and it made him uneasy since he didn't know what Harper wanted from him. It was the Warden all over again.

The answer to this question was obvious, and Harper wasn't a fool. Everyone knew why his mother loathed him, but there was no harm in saying it out loud. "I'm a living reminder of her greatest moment of weakness. I am her shame."

Harper knelt to eye level, suddenly earnest. "You think she was raped?"

"It's my turn to ask a question."

"I'm not playing a game. You...you think your father took your mother by force, is that true?"

The Mask had forgotten who he was dealing with and leaned within Elias' reach. Elias tensed his muscles, prepared to spring.

"I have no father."


	2. Chapter 2

**I don't own Ember in the Ashes. Beware of SPOILERS**

 **CHAPTER 2**

As Elias threw his shoulder into Harper's sternum and gave in to the Forest's call. Worlds shifted, and the familiar whispers of the dead curled around them. Harper pushed him off and rolled to a defensive position with his scims out. His head swiveled in all directions, bewildered.

"What- where-." Harper backed into a gnarled tree trunk just as Hannah Aquilla's spectre passed through it. He shivered.

"So the bastard still breaths. What a pity." Hannah said.

"Shaeva, a little help please?" Elias still lay on his side where Harper had thrown him.

Shaeva appeared with a rustle of dead leaves. She clicked her tongue once and broke both cuffs with a flick of the wrist. In the same breath she darted to Harper and plucked the scims from his hands before he could even think.

"Wha-"

"Your blades agitate the spirits." Shaeva said as she slid them into Elias' belt.

Not to be ignored, Hannah picked nothingness from what was once her fingernails and flicked it at Elias. Harper wasn't a threat here, so Elias ignored him for the moment and addressed Hannah.

"Greetings, Hannah-lark. How are you?"

She snarled. "You will not call me that, bastard. That was my mother's name just for me. You will not soil it with your weakling mouth."

"Who are you talking to?" Harper's calm demeanor cracked and panic seeped through.

"I'm sorry. I merely wanted to remind you some people love you have already passed beyond. Wouldn't you like to join them?"

"You won't be rid of me that easily, traitor. I'll kick you and the treasonous-whore-I-won't -call-a-sister into the river first, then I'll learn that other Farrar boy's secret and haunt Marcus into blathering madness."

"Hannah Aquilla: always ready with a plan." Elias couldn't resist a little jab. She was doing everything in her power to make his life miserable.

"I may be dead, but I'm not finished. And you're first on my list, you filth." Hannah vanished with an ominous shriek.

Elias rubbed feeling back into his frozen hands and stood, returning his attention from the Mask he'd dragged with him. Harper, however, couldn't decide which direction his greatest threat lay. His eyes darted wildly from Elias, to Shaeva, to the tree at his back.

"D-did you hear that?"

"Interesting." Shaeva shifted toward him. "You are another close to death who does not worship it. What did you hear, Avitas?"

Harper visibly struggled to calm himself when she used his name, then took a stratigic step back from Shaeva. "Who are you, spirit, and where am I?"

"You are no longer in a position to demand answers, Mask." Elias said. "This is my domain: the realm of the dead. You will tell me where Helene is taking Teluman. If you don't I will let the ghosts you hear tear your soul from your body."

"You can keep them at bay? These ghosts I feel?"

Elias quirked his lips into a wicked grin. "I'm the only thing keeping them at bay." To his surprise, this knowledge relaxed Harper instead of frightening him. Elias drew his skims and lay one across Harper's throat. The howls of the dead turned into a gale at Elias' call, but the Mask only swallowed. Elias pushed harder. "I've heard it is a very painful experience to have your soul torn from your body."

"I can imagine." Harper said.

Shaeva's warm fingertips encircled Elias' wrist. "This is pointless. He doesn't believe you'll kill him. In truth, no one who's ever met you would believe you."

"I still kill, Shaeva. I just don't want to be told who to kill." A trickle of blood slithered down Harper's neck, but he still didn't flinch.

Shaeva rolled her eyes. "Maybe, but it's absurd that you'd kill your own brother over some information you can get other ways."

Elias' body turned to her so fast he accidentally sliced a thin line on Harper's neck. Harper used Elias' shock to knock the scims from his hands and spin away. He lept over a fallen tree and put it between him and Elias' borrowed weapons. The Mask still had the obsidian-tipped knife.

"Shaeva don't tease, it's distracting. I don't have any-"

Then Elias realized the Mask named Avitas Harper wasn't surprised at all by Shaeva's statement. Elias turned his full attention to Harper and scrutinized him with fresh eyes. He was poised in a familiar fighting stance, hands up and ready for attack. Blood from his neck dropped sluggishly into the snow. No matter where he looked, Elias saw no resemblance to the Commandant. Even while he clearly saw her influence on his battle tactics. The thought they were brothers was absurd. Shaeva's little joke. The Commandant only made one mistake in her illustrious career: Elias Veturius.

"Stop playing with me, Shaeva. I'm not in the mood."

The shook her head. "We have a lot of training left to do if you can't feel connections in your own blood. I'm surprised you found Spiro at all."

"My own-" She meant the tethers that kept ghosts in the Waiting Place and anchored them to the forest's soil. "I'm not dead."

"Yes, but you _were_. And now you are a creature between worlds as well, aren't you?" She sighed. "You've brought this turmoil here, and now the spirits are roaring. Take care of the living and I'll take care of the dead." With a flick of her hair Shaeva disappeared into the dark.

Harper's small frown had returned, and Elias wondered what he was debating this time. If Shaeva saw something, it must be there. Perhaps they were cousins. Elias took a deep breath and imagined the River Dusk flowing between Harper and himself, as Shaeva taught him. The moment Elias opened his mind to the possibility he saw a wisp so faint- so lean- he might have imagined it. He pulled back.

"Is it true? Are you the Commandant's-"

"I share no blood with that woman." Harper cut him off, though he had the decency to look regretful as soon as the words left his mouth.

"It's not like I had a choice of mothers. I wouldn't wish it on anyone." Elias mumbled. "Shaeva is mistaken-"

"But the spirit girl is right. We're half-brothers." _Brothers?_ Elias' stomach hit the ground. He tried to speak, but his mouth just opened and closed of it's own will. "Arius Harper is our father. He died when I was four."

"And," Elias fought down the bile rising in his throat. "he and the Commandant… did she know it was him?"

"Of course she did." Harper's eyes burned with indignation. Somehow, Elias prefered this new life to their previous skull-like emptiness. "Arius Harper was a good man." The Mask held up a hand. "Don't ask me the details. I don't know them. My mother's dead, so the only person who knows what happened is the Commandant, and Skies help you if you want anything from her."

Elias hadn't thought to ask for details. In fact, he was unable to think anything. His hard-won scims were long forgotten in the snow. Teluman, Laia, and the Nightbringer were shadows he couldn't quite recall. It took him a few moments to remember why he'd brought them here in the first place. But the strange questions made sense now. Harper didn't want to know about Laia, he wanted to understand his brother.

"You knew all this time and you never told me." There was accusation and a raw wound in Elias' voice.

 _Is the reality of our connection so abhorrent?_

"I was ordered not to."

Of course. The Commandant. She'd stolen even more than he'd imagined. Anger bubbled in Elias' chest, he directed it toward the closest living being. "And you obey every order. No wonder you're her golden boy. You're a puppet, not a person."

The taut lines around Harper's mouth sagged. He looked suddenly tired, as though the last remnants of his will had given way. He turned his back to Elias and sat on the fallen log, utterly defenseless. Masks were taught never to turn their backs on anyone.

"Sit, if you like."

Elias hesitated. Just because he shared blood with this man didn't make him an ally. His loyalties lay with the Emperor. In compromise, he shifted closer and leaned against the splintered stump that once held up tree between them. Harper kept his eyes trained on a small patch of thistle daring to bloom despite the threats of the dead.

"We are Masks, trained to follow orders without question. You must realize it's expected I do what I'm told, even when it seems ruthless or even wrong. It's strange that you don't."

Elias had always felt distance between himself and his comrades. They looked to the Empire for guidance and purpose in a way he never could. In return, the Empire justified the violence they wrecked. He couldn't respect a house built on the bodies of innocent people, whether they were Scholars or not.

"I've filled my share of evil commands, Avitas." Harper looked over his shoulder at him when Elias used his given name. "But after the Third Trial…" his voice faltered, just saying those two words out loud. "I didn't kill Laia because I couldn't do it any more. I might have been Emperor, but I wouldn't have been able to live with myself."

Harper shook his head. "Masks don't have the privilege of a conscience. We give up that right- to be fully human- in order to serve. We are the sword of the Empire."

Elias didn't know which of them Harper was trying to convince with that little piece of propaganda.

"No chance of becoming something else, then?"

"For me? No. Not for the Commandant's "golden boy" as you put it. I've done things-" Harper drew a staggered breath. "I barely made it through my fifth year. The Warden of Kauf could tell I was… weak-spirited and turned to experimenting on me, indirectly." Elias nodded, familiar with the damage the Warden could cause without laying a finger. "When I returned, the Commandant said she would help me achieve my full potential as a Mask for the sake of my father. I was so grateful and relieved.

I did every little thing she asked without question, and in return she gave me lessons. Mostly they were espionage, self-discipline, secrets, that sort of thing. They allowed me to excel without drawing the attention of my officers. I would do anything not to be noticed again.

One night she sent for me and I came at her command. She was in her office with four guards. The woman she called Cook was restrained in the corner, and a little girl with blonde hair I hadn't seen before was lying on a table. She was shaking, terrified. The Commandant welcomed me. I remember she put a hand on my shoulder and guided me to the head of the table. She told me I needed a lesson on mastery and discipline and to hold the girl's wrists down. I did as I was told, and I didn't let go. Even when the screaming-" Harper raked a hand through his hair. "They were both screaming so much-the Cook and the girl- kept thinking 'what did a little girl do that cost her an eye?' When I was older I realized the answer: nothing. She didn't do anything at all."

"Izzy."

"That's her name?" Harper chuckled. "I should have guessed you'd be friends. Do you know where she is? Lately I've thought maybe I could ask for forgiveness. I wouldn't expect any, but-"

"I'm sorry, Avitus. She's dead. She was killed by Martials searching for free Scholars."

Harper's frown turned into a tight line. "Of course she is."

"But I know she would say you don't owe her anything. The Commandant was twisting you just like the Warden was. She did it to me all the time."

"No, she wasn't. You don't understand her. You think you do, but you don't. She really believed she was making me stronger. In her own twisted way, she cared."

The horrifying truth sailed into Elias' heart like an arrow. All his life he had hungered for his mother's approval, but it turned out having her care would have been the only thing worse than having her hate. He could almost laugh.

"From that day I was beyond redemption, and I knew it." Harper said.

Elias' first kill- the little boy- hovered before him. Even though he'd acted in self-defense the weight of that death suffocated him every day. Elias was sure Harper had killed as a Fiver. It was impossible not to. But it seemed torturing innocent Izzy was the moment Harper believed had destroyed his soul.

"I knew Izzy, almost better than almost anyone." It was true, even if it was tragic. "She would have forgiven if you'd asked."

Harper nodded, trying to believe it. Elias could see that it hardly mattered now what Izzy might have said. Some crimes were too black for words to wash them away.

"I tortured the Blood Shrike almost to death. I would have killed her whether I thought it was right or not, because it's what the Commandant told me to do."

Elias snorted. "Of all people, Helene would understand."

"Yes, she does."

There was a softness in the way Harper said it made Elias pause.

"Where do your loyalties lie, Avitas?"

"I am the Blood Shrike's man."

Elias believed him. He wasn't surprised. Helene had a strength in her spirit that inspired either loyalty, envy, or hate. "Speaking of which. How long until they notice you're gone?"

Harper peered up at the waning moon. "If the sky here is similar to the one we left, they've already noticed."

"Ah. So that's a problem."

"And you want the blacksmith."

"Another problem."

"And no one, especially the Blood Shrike, can know you still live."

"Have any solutions to go along with those problems, brother?"

Elias couldn't stop grinning if he tried. The word slipped across his tongue as though it were always meant to be there. He may not be perfect- far from it- but Avitas was a man he could understand. And his father might not be the villain he'd imagined. He hadn't abandoned him, he'd died. Elias and Harper had been through the same hell, and even though they had come out of it quite different from eachother, there was still something, a wisp, that connected them. He'd seen it. With his grandfather missing, his mother insane, and his father now dead, it was a beautiful glimmer. They had so much to say, he didn't know where to begin.

Harper circled his forearm with a firm grip, jolting Elias out of his fantasies. "Hear me, Elias Veturius. If the Blood Shrike tells me to kill you, I will do it. Because if I don't, she will, and I can't let her live with that on her conscience. Do you understand?"

Of course it wouldn't be family without death threats.

"I understand. More problems. You wouldn't have a plan up your sleeve, would you?"

"Not from here, and I'm still not sure where 'here' is." Harper shook his head. "We have to get close to camp before we know what to do. Not that I'll be sorry to leave. You do know how to get back, right?"

Elias smirked. "Let's take a walk."


	3. Chapter 3

**I don't own Ember in the Ashes, but it is a lovely universe.**

 **CHAPTER 3**

Avitas shook out his cloak to rid himself of the Forest of Dusk's remnants. Among those trees pulsing with ancient magic he'd feIt like fleshless fingers crawled across his skin and probed his secrets. He knew he'd said too much to Elias. It was as though he couldn't help himself- like those fingers turned him inside out. It made him feel exposed, and he'd been vulnerable a little too often lately. The tightrope he walked burned on both ends, and his tactics were more dangerous and desperate by the hour.

They stopped a safe distance away on the camp's weakest side. The hill sloped down just enough that the half-brothers could overlook the camp without too much fear of being caught. Dex had moved. He was still in the firelight's reach, but just barely. Teluman was still next to him, but was now mostly obscured in shadow. Faris had saddled and untethered the horses. He'd arranged them in a hapazard ring and knelt in the middle, using their bodies as defensive walls with as little exposure to the darkness as possible. He looked ready to bolt at the first signal. The Blood Shrike was nowhere to be seen. Avitas guessed she was making slow circles around camp stretching ever wider. She was looking for him.

"Looks like they've noticed you're missing. They'll think you've been captured or killed."

Avitas' hand wandered half-consciously to the cut on his neck that finally clotted. It was almost true. "We can use that."

"Oh? How."

"Propose a trade. Convince them camp is surrounded so it's our lives or the blacksmith."

Elias considered. "That might work. But Helene is smart- calm under pressure. She'll stall until she figures out it's just one person here. And she'll expect you to immediately turn and fight once you've been cut loose. If you don't, she'll know something's off."

"So we need to cut the timeline short in a way that keeps me from killing you."

"Please. I'd prefer not to die again just yet."

" _Again?"_

Elias sighed. "A story for another time."

Avitas added that to the long list of questions he'd been building lately, though he doubted he'd get another chance to ask them. Avitas' hand brushed Elias' dagger sheathed at his hip. In the chaos he'd forgotten about it. The blade was Teluman's work, which surprised him, but the hilt was different. It had a scrolling curve that maintained all of the function of a Teluman blade but added a level of true artistry and passion Teluman never had.

"Who made this?" Avitas pulled the dagger from his belt and balanced it in his palm. It was small, and clearly meant as a trinket, now for real violence. The blade was too short.

"I think the blacksmith Helene's holding made the blade and a friend of mine made the hilt. I have some questions about it, though. It doesn't seem like something Teluman make. That's why we need him. The blade is strange-"

"I don't need to know." Avitas stopped him. "The more I know the more...difficult my position becomes. Would the Blood Shrike associate this blade with you?"

"No."

A plan formed in Avitas' mind. Over the years, the Commandant shared some secrets of deception not known to other Masks. Many of those secrets came from "experiments" that would have made the Warden jealous. She showed him- more than once- the delicate art of stabbing a man so he was incapacitated, but wouldn't die. The Commandant took pleasure in a helpless, but still lively victim.

Elias reached for his dagger, but Avitas pulled it away. "I'm going to borrow this."

"What for-?"

Avitas lay the tip against a weak joint of his armor at the waist.

Elias leapt for him. "Wait!"

Pain exploded across him as the blade slipped through. He'd expected it, but still the intensity overwhelmed him. Avitas' knees weakened, but he kept his feet. He pushed down the animal parts of himself that surged toward panic. New self-loathing blossomed when he remembered watching as the Commandant slid a much longer, serrated knife into an errant Scholar that happened to annoy her.

"Don't-don't worry. I know what I'm doing. It's not lethal, it just looks bad." Even as he said it, Avitas' faith in his plan quickly dwindled. Of course he'd never stabbed himself before, but he understood human anatomy far better than he ever wanted to. But every few seconds a new sharpness pricked at his gut like a needle digging well beyond the short blade's reach. Something was wrong. Nausea washed over him and his vision doubled when he felt it again.

 _Did I turn it too far?_

Elias steadied him. "You don't understand. The dagger has a hidden obsidian tip that detaches. Try not to move, alright? It's going to keep cutting every time you do."

"Obsidian?" It would be next to impossible to remove, and it would kill slowly. It was killing _him_ slowly. This was a weapon meant to inspire cruelty and terror. "What are you doing with this?" He gestured to the hilt protruding from his side.

"Right, here's a better question: why did you stab yourself, you idiot?!"

That was a good question, in retrospect. 'Because it seemed like a good plan one minute ago' sounded stupid, so Avitas opted for silence.

"We have to get you to Helene now!"

Elias took Avitas' elbow and guided him to the camp's clearing. The Mask didn't understand why his half-brother thought the Blood Shrike could help. She wasn't a skilled medic that he knew. Avitas grunted in pain when Elias pulled his hands behind his back and tied them together with a leather strip.

"Sorry. It has to look good. Skies knows we're in it now. A little communication would have saved us a lot of trouble, brother."

Avitas managed a tight smile. Though he'd just threatened Elias' life, the young man still wanted to call Avitas 'brother.' He was an endless puzzle. No wonder the Blood Shrike was so obsessed. Of all people, Avitas knew what it meant to have family at your side when you thought you were alone. At least he'd told Elias Veturius the truth before he died. If this was his last act, Avitas was glad he could protect Elias and the Blood Shrike at the same time, even if he was protecting them from each other.

Elias pulled his cloak's hood far over his head. "Skies, I hope this works."

Faris heard them first reach the clearing's edge first. He pointed an arrow in their direction.

"Who's there? Identify yourself."

Elias and Avitas kept just out of sight in a patch of sparse winter foliage and skeletal bushes.

Elias adopted a Northman's lilt Avitas hoped the Blood Shrike wouldn't recognize. "Give us the blacksmith and we'll be on our way. No harm to you or your friend here. Well, no more harm anyhow."

Dex squinted into the dark, his scims drawn. "Avitas, are you there?"

Elias cursed under his breath and pulled out a scarf.

"Sorry, again." Elias whispered as he gagged him- a little over-tight in his haste. Avitas would have been annoyed if he weren't using all his energy to stay conscious. Elias continued in his false accent. "The Mask isn't feeling chatty right now. You got questions for my friends, ask 'em to me. Where's the pretty lady?"

"Here." The Blood Shrike was somewhere to their left, though she remained hidden. "What do you want with the blacksmith?"

"'S no concern of yours. We could kill you and take him anyhow, but we're not blood-crazed Martials after all. We're traders, so we'd like to trade. Man for a man. We think 's fair."

"You want a friendly trade?" The Blood Shrike's voice was closer now, though Avitas hadn't heard her move. Skies, she was good. "Step to the fire and share our meat. We can talk."

"Martials don't live by the rules of Tribesmen- or any rules t'all but greed for power. Besides, your man here doesn't have the time for hospitality."

Elias spoke the truth. The cold winter seeped further into Avitas' gut and a pool of blood expanded from his boots. Soon enough he'd no longer be able to stand. He willed himself to stay on his shaking legs. If he fell this little plot would fall apart, and it would be for nothing.

"If you have Avitas, let me see him." The Blood Shrike said.

Avitas edged forward just far enough that the dagger's hilt glinted in the moonlight. The taut lines of Faris's jaw told Avitas how he looked: not good. They'd seen enough 'dead men walking' to know. Avitas imagined his skin gray and dotted with sweat; his eyes widened by adrenaline. The quick pace of his heart was the only thing keeping him conscious at this point. His comrades would know his time was short just by looking at him. Masks were practical, the Black Guard more so. Avitas felt a helplessness that nipped at his heels all his life settle in his chest. They wouldn't risk their mission for a dead man. It would be for nothing after all.

Wood cracked in the waning fire and one of the horses snorted. No one moved. Elias leaned as close to Avitas' ear as he dared.

"Don't worry, she'll take the deal. Aquillas are loyal unto death. Trust her." Avitas didn't think she'd want a corpse in exchange for a high-value enemy of the Empire no matter her loyalties, but Elias had known her all his life and there was no doubt in his voice.

Elias drew two daggers, one long and one short, and stepped away from Avitas' back. Avitas tilted and almost lost his footing. He must have been using Elias for support without realizing it. He felt the bite of steel pressed against his spine.

"Don't think of it, pretty lady. My friend on the hill can see you clear. He's a good shot and he's itching to put iron through Martial eyes. Problem is, he's a good shot, not a great one. He might take the blacksmith along with you. So you see it's in all our interest if you trade with businessman like myself."

The other blade must be pointed in the direction of the Blood Shrike. Avitas' senses were so dulled he hadn't heard her approach. After a pause, the Blood Shrike stepped into the clearing only meters from them. She crossed her arms and scanned Avitas up and down. He held his breath. She would know he was a worthless pawn now if she hadn't before.

"Dex, cut Teluman loose."

"Wha-"

"Do it."

"But sir, Harper's not gonna-"

" _Now_ , Dex."

Dex thrust a hand into his pocket and drew out a key. He paused and looked hard at the Blood Shrike to see if she would come to her senses, but she was glowering at the hooded figure still at Avitas' back. Dex unlocked the chain binding them together, but grabbed Teluman's arm before he could start toward Elias.

Helene crossed her arms. "Our's first."

"So you can slit the blacksmith's throat like a good soldier? If you jump on those horses you might make it out. You're Masks, after all. But this one here won't. I'm a lover of life. Six children of my own, you see. I want everyone to walk away happy. Just send him over, then I'll keep my word."

"Keep your word?" Dex shouted. "You've already killed him, you bastard."

"Do what he says, Dex."

"You can't be serious, Helene. Sorry, but Harper understands."

"Teluman isn't our primary mission here, and I will _not_ lose any more good men if I don't have to. Now hurry, I'm running out of time."

Dex's mouth snapped shut. The mention of those they'd lost stilled him. The Third Trial loomed between them heavy and dark.

Avitas did understand Dex's point, which made Helene's insistence all the more confusing. The Mask part of his brain whirred at a breakneck pace to understand her game. He knew he was missing something important, and whatever it was, Elias Veturius knew what it was. The rest of his mind repeated one phrase like a sacred chant: _any more good men_. The Blood Shrike Helene Aquilla brought his soul back from the void he'd cast it in years ago by showing him true strength and honor, and she counted him as a good man. He thought of the slave named Izzy screaming as he bruised her wrists against the table top. He thought of Helene's silence as he questioned her blow after blow. The thousands of chilling, cruel, revolting things he'd done flew past him in a grotesque parade.

A good man like Elias Veturius. A good man like his father.

"Go on then." Dex shoved Teluman's shoulder.

Teluman took careful, measured steps. He didn't know what awaited him in the forest- it could be a friend or if fate worse than the Black Guard. Once Teluman was within arm's reach of Avitas, his face transformed from wary trepidation to dumbfounded. He was close enough to see the man under the cloak was none other than Elias Veturius.

"When I say go we run. Don't look around and don't stop." Elias whispered.

Teluman nodded, his eyes darting from tree to bush looking for Elias's allies. He didn't yet know there were none to find.

"That's far enough, blacksmith." Helene commanded. "Let him go now, before I change my mind."

Elias leaned to his ear again. "Avitas, tell Helene to take out the obsidian. She must take it out before she sings. Remember that. I hope we meet again in better days."

 _Sings?_

Avitas was beyond caring for answers. It was taking all of his will to stay standing. He wanted to lay down next to the warm fire and welcome nothingness.

"Keep your word, brigand!" Helene drew out her scims. "I will gut you if you don't. No army of thieves could stop me."

Elias sighed. "This just isn't your day, brother."

He gave Avitas an almighty kick that launched him, tripping into the Blood Shrike. She caught his arms and lurched him behind the horses in one smooth motion. Dex and Faris crouched on either side with their back to the Blood Shrike. They were suddenly in complete darkness. Dex must have doused the fire to conceal them.

The Blood Shrike wrenched the scarf from his mouth. "How many?"

"Ten that I saw. Not your average cutthroats." He didn't know where that number came from.

"Yeah, no kidding." Faris said.

The Blood Shrike grasped the hilt. "Steady."

She pulled it out and what had been a river of blood erupted into a deluge. Avitas tried to remember what Elias told him to say, but all he wanted was to sleep. The Blood Shrike pressed on the wound and Avitas gasped as the obsidian dug deeper.

"The tip! The knife is made to break. It's still in there."

The Blood Shrike took three steadying breaths, then plunged her fingers into his side. Avitas couldn't help but cry out, though he tried to stifle it. If felt like poisonous snakes were writhing and biting him from the inside. He vomited on the Blood Shrike's knees, but she didn't seem to notice.

"Skies, that's sharp. What's this thing made of?"

Avitus would have told her, but he was no longer able to speak.

"Got it." The Blood Shrike's hand gleamed red, and between her fingertips was a black triangle the size of a thumbnail. "Obsidian. It was meant to detach from its shaft. What a brutal weapon. Whoever stabbed you is a cold-hearted wretch, Harper."

Avitas agreed. The wretch was also a complete fool, dying because of a hasty mistake. He realized it was his last breath even as the air filled his lungs. The dagger was gone now, and his body melted in relief. Blackness seeped through the edges of his vision making narrow tunnels. He focused on Helene, glad that he would die among those he trusted instead of alone as he had always believed he would.

It was his last breath, and he would use it well.

"You are smarter than her, and you are stronger than him. Don't let them win."

"No. You will not die, Harper. Avitas! I'm ordering you!"

Avitas was surprised to learn moment of death brought with it a song. It was a clear melody like- the fusion of a north mountain spring and the warm cobblestones, and he felt he'd heard it before. Regretfully, the last thing Avitas heard as he drifted toward eternal sleep was Dex.

"Skies, Helene. What did you do?"


	4. Chapter 4

**I don't own Ember in the Ashes. You'll just have to wait for the sequel.**

 **CHAPTER 4**

Avitas' shoulders ached and burned. Since the dead didn't get muscle cramps, he assumed he was alive. _But how?_ His years of training told him, without question, he should be dead. Of course that training had in no way prepared him for a brother who ferried souls to their final rest, so there were some gaps in his education.

Water roared nearby, which meant they had left the trees behind and made it to the river valley. He was never so glad to be rid of trees.

Avitas took stock. He was lying on his back underneath a lean-to. His comrades must have left in such a hurry they'd abandoned the tents and most of the supplies. A sleeting rain pelted the branches above him. Sluggishly, he became aware of warm breath on his neck; he wasn't alone. He steeled himself for intense pain as he turned, but the it was dull and old. It was as though he'd stabbed himself weeks ago. But since the blood on his clothes was barely dry, that couldn't be true.

More puzzles. More questions.

The Blood Shrike lay next to him, her breath shallow and her cheeks sunken. Avitas frowned. Some kind of fight had occurred while he was unconscious and he'd been a burden to his comrades. This new reckless streak of his needed to be reined in if the Blood Shrike was to survive. The Commandant had her own surprises that would make Elias' look mundane, so he must be more cautious in his choices. That lesson he'd learned, at least.

A dizzy spell hit him when he sat up, but he pushed back the urge to vomit again. The Blood Shrike had no injuries he could see, so he lifted the blanket that covered them. He started when he saw she had a bandage on her side exactly where he did. He touched hers, then his.

 _Strange_.

Dex's familiar tread approached the lean-to. He dropped a pile of wet wood next to the entrance and peered inside. "Faris, you won the bet. The halfwit woke up first." Avitas heard flesh slapping river rock nearby and Faris' cheer. Dex grinned at him. "Hope you're hungry. We caught too many fish while we waited."

Avitas pressed down the bile rising in his throat.

"What happened to the Blood Shrike? Where we attacked again?"

Dex squeezed under the shelter next to them and tucked in the Blood Shrike's bandage so it lay flat and secure.

"You tell us. You were gone, we think. As in dead. She sang a song I've heard before, though I can't recall… It sounded familiar anyway. Then you started breathing and she just fell over. We've tried everything to wake her up, but no luck. You know anything about this?"

"No, I had no idea the Blood Shrike could raise the dead."

Faris ducked into the entrance, a string of trout dangled in his hand. "We're not sure she can." His brow furrowed with worry. "Glad to have you back, Harper, but if she doesn't come back from this we'll gut you."

Faris jiggled the fish for effect.

"Slowly." Dex added.

"Come on, Dex. Leave them alone and let the man rest. We've done what we can"

Dex gave the Blood Shrike a forlorn look, then mouthed 'slowly' again before ducking back out.

The Blood Shrike made a huff sound that could have been words and stirred. It didn't sound like feverish mutterings but Avitas cupped her cheek in his hand, just to make sure she wasn't too warm. She rolled into his touch.

"Elias."

Avitas pulled away and reproved himself for taking liberties he hadn't been given. Her breath hitched and her twitching fingers stilled. Masks were trained to awaken but still appear to be asleep and assess their surroundings. Elias had tried the same trick on him. Avitas pretended to fall for it. He focused on the rocky shore beyond their lean-to so she could speak in her own time.

"You look like the Hells rolled over you."

He laughed and immediately regretted it. "You're not so pretty yourself, Blood Shrike."

"I'm sure." Her gaze drifted to the lean-to's roof of leaves as they quivered in a breeze. "I had the strangest dream my sister Hannah was screaming at- calling me a- well, haunting me because I couldn't save her. But you're still alive. Honestly I'm a little surprised. I wasn't sure it would work this time." The Blood Shrike's voice cracked. Avitas handed her a canteen.

"Thanks to you, it seems. Care to explain?"

The Blood Shrike edged up to her elbow and shook her head. "I'm not sure what I'm doing. The song just comes to me. But it's getting harder to... recover. I'm not sure how many of those I have left in me."

She didn't ask him not to mention it, because she didn't feel the need. Her three companions would never betray that kind of secret, and she knew it.

Even though the Blood Shrike was awake, she didn't seem entirely there. It was as though her soul had abandoned her body and left its shadow behind. He was looking at outline of Helene Aquilla instead of her soul. He wondered if it was possible that a missing part now resided in him. The thought unsettled him.

"You shouldn't have done it whatever it was. My mistakes are my own. I was distracted and made a poor choice."

"They were very skilled. It could have been any of us. I never saw anyone but that cloaked man and when Dex followed him, both his and Teluman's footprints disappeared after fifteen steps."

Harper barely remembered the lies that slid from him like a regular report hours before. The Commandant would be proud. She always bemoaned his lack in the area of subterfuge.

"Next time I do something foolish, I'll pay for it myself."

"Sorry, not an option. You're one of my men, and I don't just mean Black Guard, Harper. That means something."

Avitas swallowed thickly. The Blood Shrike Helene Aquilla didn't realize it, but to Aviatas that meant everything.

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If you made it to the end, thank you for reading. I have a ton of other projects on my desk but this little story kept poking me in the side until I wrote it. It helped that this is a small story so it was easier for a novice writer like myself to tackle. I think it has a lot of problems, but maybe some high points as well. If you have a moment, please drop me a note and let me know where I'm doing it well and where I'm doing it very, very wrong so I can improve.


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